Day 5: Salmon in the Sand

Hey Reader! Geez is all I can say! I just logged onto my Facebook and I had not one but two comments on my wall asking where my entry for today was. I'm getting to it people! I didn't realize my blog was so anticipated by everyone! It sure makes me feel good and it certainly makes me feel loved. Thank you guys, it really means a lot. 


As for today, well we were up at 4:45am again. Yes, my eyes were bloodshot and no I did not shower. Screw Herbal Essences, the salt air is my shampoo! It's true Reader, I'm a full fledged adventurer/researcher as of today. We went out to Scott's Bay which is basically over in the general area of Brady's Beach and we finally got to do specimen collections. It was so fun! My group didn't actually find anything too exciting but there were some amazing finds by other people! Flatworms, peanut worms, burrowing anemones, sunstars, sea squirts and of course crabs. The low tide was SO amazing this morning. I couldn't believe how far out we could walk. Also it was super foggy this morning so even though we could see for miles, the islands were all hidden by the fog. I definitely had a great time walking around in my rubber boots, splashing around in the water. What a great morning!


This afternoon we had a quiz and I think it went well but who knows right? I mean there were a couple questions that I didn't know but the rest seemed pretty good. Either way it didn't matter because lab was over early and we got to go out to Pachena Beach for 'Happy Hour on Deck'. This is a weekly occurrence normally held at the director of Bamfield's house but since he was away this weekend, we had it at the beach. The other course that's going on right now (Ethnobotany) was having an old fashioned cook out. When we got to the beach the Ethnobotany students explained the process to this cook out. They had dug a pit and had made a huge fire at the bottom and thrown big rocks in the pit. The fire was put out and the rocks were still extremely hot. They then put food (wrapped in plants from the environment) in the pit and covered it with more plants and then sand. This cooked for about four hours today. Needless to say the food was INCREDIBLE! They cooked salmon, halibut, veggies and apples. The roasted apples were actually amazing! It really reminded me of Hawaii where they do the same thing but instead they burry a pig and let it roast all day under the sand. It was such a great experience.


After an amazing supper of 'sand salmon' as it was dubbed, we went walking on the beach and eventually made our way back to campus. A friend and I rowed over to the West side of Bamfield to go to the General Store. What a trek. Let's start by saying that I don't know how to row. I know Reader, you must be so disappointed. But luckily my friend knew how to row. Unfortunately she was a bit rusty at it. Long story short, we held up the boating traffic just a smidge while trying to make our way across the channel. It was totally worth it for the ice cream on the other side! :)


Reader, I'm so happy that the weekend is here! I NEED sleep! Seriously, this whole waking up at 4:45am thing has screwed up my biological clock. It's telling me that it's bed time at around 7:00pm. No biological clock, you're wrong! Bedtime should be no earlier than 10:00pm in my opinion! Especially on a Friday! Either way, we have lab tomorrow morning so I will in fact be going to bed at a reasonable hour but who knows when that'll be! As for this weekend, I hope it's a great one and I wish you all the best Reader! As always, I'm thinking of you all and missing you like crazy! You guys are everything to me! 

Day 4: Have Ya Heard About My Limpet Friend?

Wow what a day! I feel the need to complain but I will restrain myself because although it was long, I still had a blast! Who knew that waking up at 4:45am could actually make you more energized for the day? I sure didn't because before today, I thought waking up at 7:30am was early! I take it back! Let me sleep in! 


It was still dark this morning when we set out in the boat. Our destination was Brady's Beach which is on the west side of Bamfield and a little bit farther south. It took about 45 minutes to hike there. I normally don't mind hiking but hiking in rubber boots sure is tough! There are so many hills around here and it's so tricky maneuvering your way in big old galoshes. Either way we made it alive to the beach and just in time for the 'sunset' (it was overcast). Our prof gave us a brief safety talk then we were free to explore the beach. It was really fun walking around and investigating all the cool things the environment had to offer! Yes, it smelled like rotting fish but after awhile I didn't even notice! I was indeed 'one with the tide' as it ebbed and flowed around me. (Karina, are you proud?) There were so many starfish (Pisaster to be specific) and a whole bunch of barnacles! I have to say rubber boots are an excellent invention since my feet did not get wet once today and I was standing in several tide pools.


If you haven't noticed yet Reader, the titles of these Bamfield entries have all been the highlights of my days here. Today is no different. I am a sucker when it comes to molluscs, end of story. I love them, I love what they do and I love learning about them. This year in my invertebrates class (back at my home university) we learned about limpets. I'd never heard about limpets before! You can understand why I was extremely shocked to find numerous limpets scattering the rocky shores this morning. I managed to pry a limpet off the rocks and investigate him at a closer glance. Now this limpet was simply incredible! He was bold, brave and pretty cute at the same time. I named him Bob and for about half an hour Bob was suctioned onto the knuckle of my right ring finger. What a guy! I was very sad when I had to put him back (he was getting a little dry) but I think he knew how I felt! For those of you who have never seen a limpet before, check out this YouTube link! They're just so adorable! (They're basically snails hiding under a lamp shade...)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79RvGRUdnwE)


The rest of the day was filled with lectures and seminars and a random deer jumping out in front of me (okay that was kind of cool). We did start Cnidarians today (jellyfish, anemones, hydras, etc.) and the class was split into groups to perform skits portraying the different life stages of these creatures. Needless to say the skits were pretty much hilarious! Dancing jellyfish, asexual reproduction through song and who could forget the joke telling larva? It was definitely worthy of applause.


Unfortunately we will be up at the same time tomorrow morning, heading out to a different beach. We also have our first quiz tomorrow so I still have a bit of work to do tonight. But I probably won't be up much later. I need sleep like nobody's business! I am excited for the adventure tomorrow though! And besides tomorrow is Friday! Nothing wrong with that! Thanks again for reading and keeping up with me Reader! It really means a lot to know that I have people back home following my adventures/shenanigans! I miss and love you all!

Day 3: Dyeing Sponges

Is it Wednesday already? This week is flying by! Honestly today I was 'at school' for 10 hours and it felt like the blink of an eye! They were definitely right about 'Bamfield time' when they said that time doesn't seem to work normally out here! Also I've been waking up at 7:00 every morning (going to bed at around 10:30pm) and my brain hasn't exploded from exhaustion! For those of you who know my normal sleep schedule (go to bed around 3:00am and wake up around noon), you can understand what I mean when I say that this is not a normal 'Victorialune sleep pattern'. Oh well, I seem to be settling myself in quite nicely. Today was just as incredible as yesterday and though I'm homesick and missing all of my wonderful friends and family, I feel like this is where I'm supposed to be right now.


Today we had a morning lecture about plankton. I was pretty sure it was going to be a boring morning since after lecture we were to go out and collect some plankton. It turned out to quite the adventure! We had to haul this HUGE net down to the docks and literally try to throw it out into the water. Reader, you have no idea how freaking heavy this net was! Either way we collected some 'soup' as my prof called it and took it back to the lab. We spent the rest of the morning analyzing and identifying what we found floating around. I was pretty much ecstatic when I found a nematode (which is definitely one of my preferred phyla)! I also found a crab's molt and some poop. Wow, I'm obviously an expert when it comes to plankton. (By the way the poop was from an unidentifiable organism... I personally think it was the nematode. He looked like trouble!)


Today's lunch was pizza (YUM) and so naturally I swiped an extra slice to take for later. Definitely a great decision on my part. We had another lecture after lunch about sponges (phylum Porifera for those interested) but this lecture was more like the class sharing its knowledge on sponges (the prof was 'too lonely giving the lecture by herself', she's a riot). I had to explain their feeding methods. I always think back to that classic SpongeBob episode where he's sitting in the middle of his house all alone because he's scared to go outside. He tells Patrick and Sandy that he doesn't need to leave the house since he can filter feed. He then proceeds to 'filter feed' and his facial expressions are just plain priceless (the episode is called 'I Had an Accident', check it out).


We went back to the docks to try and find some sponges and luckily we were successful. Although these sponges were VERY small. Honestly when I think of sponges I picture those huge ones in the coral reefs. Well the sponge I found was maybe 3 centimetres... He was quite the find! The best part of the day was definitely when we took our poriferans back to lab. We had to try and classify them down to species using dichotomous keys and we had to dissolve a piece of sponge to see what it was made of (yes chemicals were used, so fun)! We also got to put fluoresceine (a dye that turns bright neon green when reacting with water) in the water with the sponges. Since sponges are basically just simple pumps, they pumped the dye right through them thus creating a plume of green dye coming out their tops. It was really incredible. I filmed it but due to my camera being ridiculous, I won't be posting it until I get home. But if you're interested in seeing something similar, you can check out this YouTube link. It's really just amazing! Oh and by the way, the dye is completely harmless to the sponges or other living things in the environment!
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmPTM965-1c&feature=related )


So Reader tomorrow is the infamous 5:00am field trip to 'be one with the tides' as my prof told us. I'm personally not looking forward to waking up so early but I am excited to see some amazing invertebrates and to FINALLY get a chance to wear my amazingly fashionable rubber boots. Ah yes, Dolce & Gabbana would be proud! As always, thanks for following my adventures and I miss/love you all! :)

Day 2: Orange Races

It's great to be back in school! It's funny how much you miss it once summer comes around. I just remember being in second semester (so this winter) and counting down the minutes until school was done but once you're actually done you start to miss it right away. That was definitely the case for me. Today we got into the classroom and had lectures and it just felt like that was exactly what I was supposed to be doing. The lectures may have been boring and not really about invertebrates but taking notes and listening to the prof was definitely a highlight of my day.


Don't worry Reader, I'm not that big of a dork! We did lots of stuff in the field today as well. This morning after our first lecture we went down to the docks and were told to collect any specimens of inverts that we saw. My partner and I found a star fish, some muscles and some tunicates (which in lamen's terms are basically goopy colonial animals). We brought them back to lab and found that our starfish had already eaten the muscles. Thanks starfish. So we ended up having tunicates and a starfish. We were instructed to draw any specimen that our lab mates brought back. I did a diagram of an urchin and let me tell you, that urchin was an escape artist! It literally tried to escape its plastic container three times. I had to flip it over just so it wouldn't try to leave! I named him Harry (after Houdini). Let's just say my diagram is pretty incredible. Not going to lie. 


After lunch we had another lecture but then we got to go back to the docks and learn about movement in the water (you know like the tide, ebbs and flows, currents, etc.). To do this we basically got to fool around with corn syrup (including one classmate eating three spoonfuls on a dare) and dyeing the syrup with food coloring. We then continued on with our learning by racing oranges. Yes that's right, we got to throw oranges into the ocean and race them while deciding whether the tide was coming in or out. I will again give props to this amazing prof. She kind of reminds me of Ellen Degeneres... Her voice is similar, she dances around a lot and goes off on random tangents while she's talking. 


So Thursday and Friday morning are going to be super early starts. We have field trips at 5:00am (yes that's right, five in the morning) because that's when the best lows tides will be. Yup, I'm thinking it's time to start saving up on sleep. That means early nights for this adventurer! Love and miss you all! 

Day 1: It All Begins Now

Yo Reader! So as promised I am indeed blogging it up again! I have to say I had a semi break down last night. I think after I posted my entry it all just hit me about being away from home for six weeks, missing my friends and family and being alone out here. Luckily I have the greatest parents in the world and they assured me (like they always do) that I’d be fine. Well Reader, I made it through my first (official) day and I can proudly say that I’m feeling much more confident.

Today was basically like an orientation for Bamfield. It was great because I basically didn’t know anything and they showed us where to go, what to do and when to do it. The whole day we were shown the ropes and had little to no free time. The people in charge of Bamfield seem like they’re really nice. There’s this lady Beth who runs the university program and she’s just amazing. She knows everyone’s name, goes out of her way to make us feel welcome and is actually an interesting person with so many stories to share.

Now Reader, I’m going to give props to anyone who does scuba diving/snorkeling on a regular basis. Wetsuits are probably the most ANNOYING contraptions on the face of the Earth. Today we got fitted for our snorkeling gear and it literally took an hour (that was just for me and two other girls) to get out wetsuits done. Don’t get me wrong, I’m SUPER pumped to go snorkeling but geez, it had better be worth the hour I spent trying to get these things on!

I’d like to give an early shout out to my prof Dr. M. She is EXACTLY what I want to be when I ‘grow up’ (so to speak). She’s quirky, fun and knowledgeable beyond her years. Not only that but she tries her best to relate to her students and explain things in ways that we’ll understand. Today, just to get into the swing of things, she took us down to the docks and pulled up some rocks from the bottom of the ocean. They were covered in amazing invertebrates and she had us name all the phyla that we saw. (I of course had a field day since taxonomy happens to be my strong suit. I think I impressed her! *wink*) But anytime we didn’t quite know what something was, she’d give us a small hint then ask us why we thought the animal was what it was. I really want to be that kind of prof! The kind of person who doesn’t just throw you the answer but makes you ask yourself why something is what it is. My favorite part of the day was when Dr. M poked a sea squirt and it squirted water all over one of my classmates’ face! I amazed to actually see a sea squirt; I thought they were much rarer than they actually are! Urochordates FTW.

Alrighty well I guess it’s time for this student to say goodnight! Class starts tomorrow morning and I’m more than ready to start learning! I’ll be posting so I hope you’ll be reading! Miss you all! :)

Day 0: Bath Tub Races, Drive By Fireworks & Dusty Gravel Roads

Hey Reader how's it going today? I'm currently at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (as I mentioned I would be in my last post). I'm sitting comfortably in my bunk bed with my new roommate Holly sitting across from me. Things are going well so far and I can honestly say I'm not so nervous anymore. I am, however, tired out of my mind. And seriously, who wouldn't be after the trip I've had! I'm not joking you when I say that getting to Bamfield has got to be the craziest trek EVAR! So without further a do, here's a brief recap of my voyage out here.

I left home on Saturday and flew out to Vancouver. In Vancouver I had a small layover then flew on to Nanaimo. First of all flying from Vancouver to Nanaimo is now my favorite flight of all time! It took literally 15 minutes. Unfortunately the flight was on one of those Air Canada 'Jazz' planes so it felt like we were going to crash the entire time. I landed in Nanaimo and grabbed my luggage only to find my rolling suitcase was broken. Spectacular. Thank you Air Canada. So I hauled my super heavy bags to a taxi and we drove into the actual city of Nanaimo. I stayed the night in the quaint little city and found out that it was their annual 'Bath Tub Race' festival thing. Now what is a bath tub race you may be wondering. I'm still not sure I can answer that question. I watched for a bit and it honestly blew my mind. Grown people were literally rowing bathtubs down the bay.

After watching the locals make complete fools of themselves and after having been glared at for not being a local (for more info on glaring locals, read my entry 'Free and Easy Down the Road I Go'), I returned to the hotel and ordered a pizza. 'Best Caesar Salad in Town' said the add. So naturally I got a caesar salad as well. It was good but I've had better. Thank you Western Pizza! Anywho, I'm watching the Sopranos in my room when all of a sudden I hear what I believe to be gun shots. They turned out to be fireworks. I was quite relieved since I thought someone was committing a 'drive by shooting' at my hotel.

This morning I woke up, took the bus from Nanaimo to Port Alberni and then took the Bamfield shuttle bus. I kid you not, we were on a winding gravel road for an hour and a half with no view except dust and trees. Wow. That was an enjoyable ride. It was kind of funny though. Since it was so dusty we couldn't see what was coming around each corner and there were numerous trucks driving the opposite direction. There were several close calls and each time we'd sigh in relief. The driver knew what he was doing but we questioned whether he could actually see or whether he was just plain lucky.

Well Reader, that about sums up my last two days. I miss you all already. You have no idea how lonely I feel even though I've already made new friends. You guys are my family and you mean the world to me! As for living in Bamfield, I think I'm going to like it here! So far everyone seems really cool and pretty chill so that's always good! Lots of love my dear Reader, talk to you soon!